First Try: Shippuden
by Lucillia
Summary: It has been three years since Team 7 broke apart and each member went their own way. Now, the Akatsuki are on the move, as is Orochimaru, and things become more complicated as problems at home arise and threaten to distract everyone from their duties at a most critical time. Sequel to First Try: Team 7
1. Return To Konoha

Sasuke approached the village gates the same way he had done on several occasions over the past three years. Every time there was a rumor that Naruto had been spotted heading in the direction of Konoha, he would go to greet him. This wasn't because he was friends with the other boy, but because every day that Naruto was alive was a day that That Man's plans, or rather the plans of the criminal organization that That Man belonged to weren't completed. That, and the fact that every time Naruto returned, he would have a new trick to show him.

Too much had passed between him and Naruto in the early days back when he believed that the other boy was a stepping stone towards his goal of defeating That Man for them to ever be friends. They could be friendly towards each-other, but they had not crossed the line of friendship and likely never would.

He himself wasn't without friends however. After Naruto, Shino, and Shikamaru had been promoted to the rank of Chunin, he had been folded into Team 8 under Kurenai. He had been somewhat resentful of this at first, but had held his tongue around his team as there had been nothing he could do about the situation, especially after the Godaime had refused his transfer request. It could have been worse however, much worse. He could have been on team 10 with Ino for instance, or he could have been stupid enough to take the body-snatcher Orochimaru up on his offer when his minions had turned up on his doorstep.

After a while, when he realized that Hinata wasn't ever going to go all rabid fangirl on him since she was obsessed with Naruto of all people, he had begun opening up to her, and she became the first of his friends, the first true friend that he'd had since the Massacre. Hinata was good if quiet company, had a wicked sense of humor when she chose to show it, and knew when to leave him alone. He'd had more difficulty warming up to Kiba who reminded him of Naruto during their Academy days, but warm up to him he did, especially after they'd saved each-other's lives several times during missions after they'd been promoted to Chunin.

Before he knew it, both of his teammates had wormed their way into his life and into his heart. Team 8, or Team Kurenai as it was now called since Hinata and Kiba were Chunin and he was a Tokubetsu Jounin, became for him what Team 7 should have been.

Little Fugaku fussed as he shifted him to his other arm since he'd been getting heavy.

He hadn't been quite ready to be a father when Fugaku was born last year, and frankly still wasn't. The Hokage had ordered Fugaku's conception as well as the conception of his two daughters Mikoto and Aiko after he had started taking dangerous missions so the Sharingan wouldn't die with him if he had the misfortune to die while he was away. He had little to no idea of who his children's mothers were as he'd merely supplied the genetic material that had been implanted, and had requested no contact with the women in case they decided to get any "romantic notions" and tried to trap him in a situation where his only option aside from killing them was marrying them. He was not yet ready for marriage, and wasn't sure he would be any time soon.

That wasn't to say he wasn't a family man when he had the time, much like many shinobi were. He did visit his children regularly while he was in Konoha, and had a system set up for that which involved the children being brought to a neutral and above all safe location where he would pick them up shortly after their mothers had dropped them off and left the room. Today was Fugaku's turn for a visit, and instead of doing something the child might find fun like he usually did on such visits, he was waiting for Naruto to return, and the wait had better be worth it.

Eventually, after what had seemed to have been an eternity, he saw a spot of yellow on the horizon. Naruto had indeed returned today as had been expected. There had been times he hadn't however, in order to throw off the Akatsuki and any other potential captors.

As he watched, the spot of yellow became a wild thatch of hair - not that he could talk - atop the head of a small figure in the distance which steadily grew larger as Naruto approached. After the small figure grew to be human sized as the distance between them closed, Naruto finally reached the gate several minutes after he first appeared. Upon spotting him standing near the gate as he signed in, Naruto paused for a moment and nodded. He nodded back, and Naruto continued on his way.

His vigil over, he headed off to the park for some playtime on the swings before his visit with Fugaku was over and he had to return the boy to his mother who cared for him because she was in Konoha 24/7 unlike him.

One day, maybe...But, for now, that was the way things were, and they worked.

* * *

Naruto was glad to be back in Konoha once again. Over the last three years, his returns to Konoha had been exceedingly sporadic, and he hadn't been allowed to stay long. Jiraiya had told him that this had been in order to keep both him and the village less at risk, as the Akatsuki would be less likely to attack Konoha to get him if they didn't have any idea whether or not he would be there. The Akatsuki could still attack Konoha while he was away, but without him there, there was less of a reason for them to do so, as it would be exceedingly unwise for a bunch of missing-nin no matter how powerful to antagonize the villages without getting something big out of it in return. If they could manage to hold on to it that was...

After signing in at the gate and giving Sasuke his obligatory greeting, he smiled as he continued towards Ichiraku Ramen. When Kiba had first told him that Sasuke had pulled that stick out of his ass during one of his prior visits, he hadn't believed him. It had actually taken him a couple of visits which had included encounters with the bastard to accept Kiba's claim as true. Having kids had apparently helped significantly when it came to Sasuke's rectal stickectomy, as Sasuke seemed more relaxed and at peace with the world when he had one of his three brats in his arms.

He was sure that the fact that Sasuke had brought one of his children near the gate when he'd waited for him was significant somehow, especially considering the number of kidnapping attempts that had been made since the first of the children had been born. As it was, there had been five ANBU discreetly hiding nearby when he'd arrived. The large number of ANBU had been a necessary precaution, since there couldn't be any risks taken with the Uchiha clan now, especially with Itachi still being on the loose, and Orochimaru supposedly still being obsessed with capturing Sasuke for some reason.

Deciding to shelve the mystery of why Sasuke would get so close to the village gate with one of his precious offspring for later, he took his usual seat at his favorite Ramen stand. He couldn't have picked a more opportune time to do so, since Iruka-sensei had been grabbing a quick lunch when he arrived, and had been happy to see him.

After he'd finished his customary fifteen bowls of ramen and Iruka-sensei had gone his own way, he headed out in search of his friends and teammates as he usually did shortly after he arrived on one of his all too short visits to the village of his birth. He soon found Suzume, Sakura, and Ino sparring at one of the training grounds. As soon as they registered his presence, they quickly broke up their three-way match to greet him. Suzume looked very much as she always did, Ino had changed her hairstyle sometime since the last time he was back, and Sakura was wearing long sleeves which was surprising considering the weather and the fact that she preferred to wear short-sleeved shirts and dresses.

Ah, of course. It would seem that Sakura had attained the goal that had been her reason for joining the Ninja Academy in the first place back before she'd filled her head with all of that nonsense about becoming Mrs. Uchiha. Short sleeves wouldn't be adequate to cover the tattoo.

"Congratulations Sakura" he said after all the greetings had been made and excited hugs exchanged between him, Suzume, and Sakura.

The slight widening of the girl's eyes, and the swiftly aborted move her hand made towards her arm had been all of the confirmation he needed. Sakura was indeed to be congratulated, as she had proven herself to be one of the best Shinobi in the village, as the best and those who had the potential to br the best were usually the ones who caught the Hokage's eye when it came to certain postings and assignments.

After catching up on current events for a while, he, Suzume, Sakura, and Ino fell to sparring. Eventually they all fell to the grass either completely exhausted or feigning such. Sakura had shown phenomenal improvement since her days on Team 7, but that was to be expected considering her new status.

"So, where's Satoshi?" he asked when the girls had all caught their breath.

"He's at home." Suzume replied, looking worried for some reason.

He'd heard that Satoshi had been having some problems, but they couldn't have gotten that bad, could they?

He soon took his leave of the trio, and headed for Satoshi's house. There had been a time when he had not even been allowed to set foot on the front porch of his former teammate's home, but over the years, Satoshi's family had gradually allowed him inside, and had invited him to dine with them on a couple of occasions.

Satoshi was upstairs in his room, sleeping of all things which, considering the looks that Satoshi's parents had been shooting at his door, was quite likely cause for concern. Satoshi eventually opened his door after a couple minutes of knocking, and hadn't looked too happy as he did so. Upon spotting him, Satoshi's mood rapidly changed from surly to extremely happy, and he pulled him into the room before shutting the door once more. As he seated himself on the only chair in the room, Satoshi started telling him what he'd been up to while he'd been gone.

He frowned as he listened to Satoshi's tale of his most recent exploits. This was getting worrisome. Satoshi - as he'd learned soon after he'd joined the team - had always been a thief and a gambler, but it seemed to have gotten worse over the years. Now, it seemed that stealing and frequenting the gambling halls, both legal and not was taking up all of his time outside of missions rather than the few hours a week it used to. The books and the rocks that Satoshi had so treasured when Naruto had first met him sat on their shelves untouched and gathering dust. Satoshi's skills with a sword had dulled as well, as he had seen when his friend had displayed a particularly fine weapon he'd won off of another shinobi in a foreign gaming hall. Someone who didn't know him probably wouldn't have noticed the last, but he'd known Satoshi for years, and because he'd known him for so long, the decrease in skill that seemed to be the result of a lack of practice was blatantly obvious.

What had happened to his friend?

When he joined Tetsuo-sensei and his family for dinner that evening, that had been one of the questions he'd asked. Tetsuo-sensei didn't know exactly what had happened to trigger it, but he had known what was going on with him, having seen several good shinobi become like Satoshi and worse over his career, his old friend Morishita included. Shinobi often indulged in various vices as a form of stress relief, and sometimes - quite often in fact - the shinobi would become addicted to said vices and they would start to control them, eating into training time and dulling their senses until they became a danger to both themselves and their teammates. There had been any number of cautionary tales attached to the reasons why a ninja shouldn't overindulge in the Three Shinobi Vices, but it had taken seeing Satoshi as he was for them to finally be driven home. With youth comes a sense of immortality, and his hadn't faded quite yet despite the number of horrors he'd seen in his short life.

He was glad to learn that Morishita-san who had lost two of her Genin in the Chunin Exams in Kiri several years ago had finally gotten help, and was getting herself clean and sober. Unfortunately, it was far too late for her to salvage her career, and it had been strongly suggested that she voluntarily retire before they removed her from the active duty roster themselves. Hopefully Satoshi would get help before something like that happened to him. He'd do his best to help his friend so he hopefully wouldn't turn out like Morishita, but he couldn't be around all the time, and if Satoshi didn't want help, there wasn't really all that much he could do for him.

Despite the rarity of such visits and the levity that usually came with them, it was with a sad heart and a troubled mind that he bid his sensei goodnight and headed back to his apartment which had lain vacant for several months. For several hours after he'd gone through his nightly routine and turned in for the night, he lay in bed unable to sleep. He would have to find a way to sleep somehow despite the thoughts that were preying upon him though. Jiraiya had only given him today off, and had turned him loose while he went to report to the Hokage. Tomorrow, there would be training, and possibly missions. If he wasn't at the very least somewhat rested, he could become inattentive, and therefore a danger to himself and his teammates. But still, Satoshi...

**Edited 4/21/13**


	2. On the Move

Sakura - or Raccoon rather since she was on duty - smiled behind her mask as she watched Sasuke take little Aiko home after a day in the park. Aiko had started crawling recently, and with her new mobility had taken to getting into everything. The stories Aiko's guards related about the little holy terror never failed to get a laugh in the breakroom, and she wished the girl's mother luck, since that kid was most likely going to grow up to be a nightmare. An extremely spoiled nightmare at that, if Sasuke's behavior today was anything to judge by.

She occasionally felt a pang of something when she saw Sasuke with his children, but today had rather fortunately not been one of those days. There had been a time when her life had revolved entirely around the illusion of the boy she'd held in her heart, but that time had passed however and she had grown up and moved on since then. If one day she and the real Sasuke who was far more damaged than he let on and afraid to let anyone too close because of it ended up together, so be it. If not, oh well. There were other fish in the sea.

Soon, she and her team were at the predetermined location at which Aiko's mother would retrieve her child. A medic was always present at these exchanges in case there were any...complications. Today, it was her turn to be the medic.

She liked this job better than most of the others she was called in for as a member of Konoha's Black Ops forces. Being an ANBU medic was difficult and dirty work, often far dirtier than anything another medic would face during their careers. There were times that she wondered what she was doing here, and if she should just quit. She couldn't though. She had realized long ago that she had gone too far on her path to be able to do so. All of her friends were shinobi, and by the time her first Chunin Exam had ended, she had seen and done far too much to be an ordinary civilian. Besides, if she quit now, she would have wasted all of the time and effort Shizune-sensei had put into making her the woman she was today.

After a brief examination which revealed that Aiko was in perfect health as always, she handed the child over to her mother who seemed surprisingly plain for a mother of a Uchiha. The woman wasn't ugly, but she was...easily forgettable, and the color that best described her was brown. Brown hair, brown eyes, brown clothes, and tan skin. The woman was civilian due to the fact that she'd failed out of the Academy, but most of her other relatives including one of her ANBU guards were Shinobi.

She herself had volunteered to be the mother of one of Sasuke's children before the faint flame she'd held for him had completely burnt out, but she had been rejected on the basis of there being a possible Kekkei Genkai. Apparently, the naturally pink hair she'd been born with had counted against her. According to the story she'd heard later, the geneticist had taken one look at her picture, exclaimed "That's natural?!" and tossed her file into the reject pile without a second glance. She had been upset over the rejection at the time, and had cried for three days straight. Now however, she didn't regret the fact that she'd been rejected. She wasn't ready for a child, and having a little life that depended on her for everything would have completely overwhelmed her. If she had had the child, and her dreams regarding Sasuke hadn't come true, she probably could have ended up hating it, which would have been completely unfair to said child.

As Shizune-sensei had pointed out, it had been for the best.

The woman who was probably in her mid-twenties and her child were soon gone, and after she wrote up her report, it would be time for her to head to her next assignment. She'd dawdle over the report as long as she could though, since she hated T&I clean-up duty.

* * *

Naruto yawned and stretched after the last line of a particularly complex seal array was sketched in his notebook. He'd spent several hours tinkering with the damn thing, and now that he'd gotten it completely figured out, he would hand the information on it over to someone who would make good use of it. He would be doing that in the morning though, he had something else he needed to do this evening...

During the three years he'd been Jiraiya's apprentice, he'd learned a great deal. After he'd put his foot down about the whole Kyuubi issue that was. Throughout his wanderings through numerous countries, he picked up several tricks that had made his traps even deadlier over the years. In fact, he'd earned himself an A-rank listing in a Bingo Book on the basis of his traps. Of course, as soon as someone realized that the "mysterious trap master" was him, and that he was the Kyuubi Jinchuriki, the listing became more complete and got bumped up to S-rank despite the fact that he was still a Chunin. That had been a proud day as far as Jiraiya had been concerned, and the man had taken him on a week-long pub crawl to celebrate.

What happened during that pub crawl was something he still wasn't entirely sure he could believe. Seeing as Konoha wasn't named Village Hidden in the AWESOME!, the incident was either a dream, or there was a universe somewhere where the Shodai Hokage was a de-aged Uchiha Madara who had been mentally and physically six years old at the time he and Jiraiya left, or rather had fled from a massive posse that had been headed by a murderous Senju Hashirama who'd apparently actually been friends with Madara, as if that weren't to unbelievable in and of itself.

As Jiraiya was a Seal Master, he would have had to have been incredibly dense if he hadn't learned anything in that area. He wasn't dense.

While he was pretty much crap at making seals, that didn't mean he sucked at the subject. He was in fact, one of the top seal breakers on the continent. He could break down and analyze seals that had left many in his field tearing their hair out in frustration in an amount of time that Jiraiya had said was ridiculously fast. Apparently, if the Uchiha were to be believed, he'd gotten his start in the Academy when he'd ripped through the seals meant to keep students out of the teachers' lunches as if they weren't there which, as far as he was concerned at the time, they weren't. Despite all this, he still hadn't managed to make heads or tails of the Hiraishin as Jiraiya had wanted him to, but it was only a matter of time before he did so.

His business this evening had nothing to do with seals though, and everything to do with the third thing Jiraiya had taught him...

After stretching once more, he got up and headed out. Out the door, out of the apartment building, down the road, and out of the village, nodding to the two Chunin at the gate as he passed. About an hour later, he was in Shukuba Town, and after a bit of wandering, he found a rather nice lady who quite happily joined him on his trip to the bar as he reflected on what his friends in Konoha would think of him if they saw him now. When he entered the somewhat seedy establishment, he saw someone he recognized from his travels.

"Hey, Takeru-san!" he called out to the man. "It's been a while! Mind if we join you?"

Soon, he and his companion who had come to the town from her family's farm in order to let loose were seated across from the man Naruto had spotted. Throughout the evening, Naruto and his companions talked, drank, played cards, darts, and "I Never". Eventually, it was time for the bar to close, and Naruto and his lady-friend made their way to a nearby inn. As soon as they reached their room, the woman fell asleep.

As soon as Naruto was sure the woman was asleep, he pulled out the piece of paper that his contact had slipped into his pocket at the bar. As soon as he read it, his good mood swiftly evaporated.

Orochimaru was planning something, something he was keeping close to his vest, and it involved Sasuke. When Orochimaru had seemingly given up on his former teammate nearly three years ago after the third recruiting team had been rather messily dispatched, he should have known it was too good to be true. Considering the amount of chaos and destruction Orochimaru could cause if he got his way when it came to Sasuke, he couldn't allow that to happen. He'd kill Sasuke first if it came to it.

* * *

Orochimaru smiled as he called for one of his best subjects in order to give the young man a very special mission. In the three years since he'd tested Uchiha Sasuke, the boy had grown much stronger, and even more powerful but, he'd grown even more vulnerable as well. The boy now had quite the Achilles heel, and he would be exploiting that in order to get what he wanted, what the little Uchiha upstart had denied him three years before.

Ordering Sasuke to create a new generation of Uchiha in case the worst should happen had been a smart move on Tsunade's part. In fact, though he hadn't originally planned to do so, he himself had done what he could to help, and had one of his agents in Konoha get ahold of a certain set of samples, which had been surprisingly easy to do. Uchiha Sasuke now had seven children in Otogakure. As soon as his subordinate's mission was complete, there would be eight.

He had considered using the seven children he had on hand in order to lure Sasuke to him, but he knew the Uchiha boy well enough to know that he wouldn't risk anything for a bunch of possibly fictional children he'd never laid eyes on before. He would be willing to risk everything for a child that he'd developed an emotional attachment to however...

Soon, one of the rising stars of his forces was kneeling before him. He wasn't of the elite, but he was close to getting there, and would be counted amongst the elite should he successfully complete this mission.

"Orochimaru-sama, I live to serve." the man who was only just on this side of human said. "My life is yours to do with as you see fit."

"Good," he replied. "Since there is a strong chance that you won't be returning from this mission. If you do however, the reward shall be great."

"What would you have me do?" the man asked.

"I want you to go to Konoha and retrieve one of Uchiha Sasuke's children, preferably the son. You are to bring the child back here completely unharmed." he replied.

Not unnecessarily wasting any time, the Jounin bowed and left to prepare for his mission.

"Soon Sasuke." he said. "Soon, I shall have your body, and those eyes."

The wait had better be worth it. He had invested time and materials in Sasuke that he could ill afford to spend in the here and now, despite the fact that one had to use resources in order to gain more for the future. The reason he wasn't destroying Konoha at the moment was because one of his experiments involving viruses had caused an epidemic that had wiped out nearly half of his forces. It was all he could do to keep Suna out. The fact that the bastards were picking his men off every time they came across them in the field was bad enough.

* * *

Kamiya Satoshi yelped in more in shock than in pain. He had set foot in the front door of his favorite Konoha gambling hall, and had nearly been electrocuted when he did so.

"What the hell was that? !" he yelled.

The retired ninja who was currently employed as a bouncer looked slightly sheepish as he handed him a slip of paper.

"Your blond friend asked me to give this to you." the man said.

He looked down at the paper.

_Satoshi,_

_I know that you are going to hate me and probably want to kill me but, I can't stand by and do nothing while you throw your life and career away. I've put seals on all of the gambling halls in Konoha in order to keep you out in hopes that you'll use your time accordingly._

_Naruto._

He growled as he crumpled the paper into a ball. He was going to kill that brat. It was his life, and he'd live it however he wanted to. If he wanted to spend all of his free time gambling, then he would do so. It wasn't anyone's job to dictate to him what he should and shouldn't do, especially not Naruto.

* * *

Danzo sighed as he wiped the vomit off of his clothing. He hated this part of child rearing, it was one of the reasons he'd tended to select orphans rather than have some of his Root operatives breed more of them to replace the losses. Considering the fact that he had the room and the resources and the time, he could have easily done so had he so chosen however.

Part of the reason that his forces were so loyal to him was that he created an attachment to him early on before the training meant to eliminate all emotion kicked in. He became something of a father figure to those who had no parents before he became their master. The problem with this particular recruit who was currently undergoing the attachment conditioning was that since there had been no orphan Uchiha besides the closely watched Uchiha Sasuke, he'd had to breed his own. That meant, that this recruit was still in diapers, and prone to vomiting on people.

The attachment and therefore loyalty to him must be formed and as early as possible however...

"Take this back to the nursery." he said as he handed Uchiha #4 off to his nearest agent. He'd had enough for one day. He was going to bed.

**Edited 4/22/13**


	3. Taken

Naruto yawned as he entered the gate. It was fortunate that he was still cleared for travel or his work with Jiraiya's spy network which would one day be his spy network would be a great deal harder to get done. He didn't care for all of the drinking this particular job required, but a great deal of good information was found in bars and other such establishments, and they were a good place to meet contacts without arousing suspicion. Fortunately, thanks to the Kyuubi, he had a much higher alcohol tolerance than normal.

Along with handing over yesterday's sealing work, he would have to give the Intelligence department a heads-up. For what though, he did not yet know, other than the fact that it somehow involved the Uchiha.

As he made his way to his apartment, he was ambushed by a furious Satoshi. It seemed that his friend had gotten his note then. He was too tired to deal with this now, but it seemed that he would have to...

"What the hell Satoshi?!" he yelled as he pushed his enraged teammate off of him.

"You had no right! No right at all, you stinking hypocrite!" Satoshi yelled back as he tried to wail on him again.

"Hypocrite?" he asked.

"What? You don't think I can't smell the booze and perfume on you?" Satoshi replied. "Apparently, you can have a good time whenever the hell you want to, but when someone else tries..."

"There's a difference between letting loose once in a while, and doing what you've been doing Satoshi." he replied with a sigh. This was going to be a long morning, and he still needed to write up his report...

* * *

The man who currently called himself Tobi when he wasn't passing himself off as his relative Uchiha Madara to the point that he actually thought of himself as Madara and completely forgot who he was if he was anyone at all at times smiled behind his mask as he gave a stick of dango to a hungry looking child who had the slightly feral look of an untended orphan about him. Despite the fact that he was what most people considered evil, he had a bit of a soft spot when it came to children. It probably came from the fact that he'd raised a few of his own little monsters in between missions for Madara back when the original was still around to forward his own plans. Some stuff could be left on its own back then.

He wasn't the only Tobi, nor was he the first. Madara had needed and would need several people in several critical places in order to properly bring his plans to fruition. The old falconer's habit of naming his Uchiha assistants after common Black Kites raised eyebrows amongst those who knew the nickname some militaries had given them, but the name made sense in a way. Like many Uchiha, Shithawks would steal everything on your plate if you didn't watch the damn things. Zetsu likely existed to be his and his cousin's watcher, and to wave them off if it looked like they were about to snatch something from Madara's currently unattended plate.

He wouldn't steal off of Madara's plate however. He had too much riding on the Moon's Eye Plan, more than the other and younger of the two remaining Tobi who likely would have gotten over his little girlfriend long ago if he weren't batshit insane and possibly brain-damaged. It wasn't really in his nature anyway, considering all he'd wanted and what he'd been denied by his own clan whom he'd helped slaughter with his much younger cousins who'd been mostly unaware of his work was a peaceful life. He was more of a behind-the-scenes Tobi, and would soon be a retired Tobi since his younger cousin who'd once been a boy named Obito would be the one who'd be joining Madara on the battlefield since he had the skills and raw power to do so, the skills and sheer power he lacked for the most part.

Despite the fact that he wasn't the only one, being Tobi was fun. While he was Tobi, especially since the younger one had come on the scene, he could be happy-go-lucky, and he didn't have to remember...

No, he wouldn't, that way lay even more madness.

Currently, Tobi was in a small town in Fire Country between Konoha and the Rice Country border, a town that he felt would hold something of interest in a few hours. He'd never promised Itachi that he'd stay out of Fire Country entirely after all, just that he would stay out of Konoha, though Itachi was unlikely to realize the reason he'd been given such a promise twice had been because he and his younger cousin had switched out when the younger one had gone off to stamp out some fire that had sprung up in Kiri while he'd been away training the young boy.

Since they had been careful not to switch out around the boy too often, Itachi had thought him to be the other Tobi with his disguise removed, because young Obito had kept a seal-based illusion that had put out a false Chakra signature up while with the boy who had known him as a toddler, and he was closer to the age Madara would have been. Being as old as he was, he had looked positively ancient to such young eyes.

Considering that he was a man of his word, he would remain outside Konoha's borders for as long as Itachi was alive. As soon as Itachi was dead however, all bets were off. Itachi was no Madara, and Madara had been the only one to earn his undying loyalty.

As he stood there woolgathering, the child he'd given the dango to ran off before he could change his mind about the gift, and started scarfing it down on the fly. That was maybe two minutes killed until it was time, and he had several hours to go. Perhaps he could visit the local onsen. A nice soak would be good for relieving stress and that twinge in his back, since he hadn't had half his body replaced like his younger cousin had, there'd be little to no comment if he did so. He wouldn't really need to be in top form for what he knew to be coming, but it would be best not to risk getting caught with his pants down. Having his back go out at the most inopportune moment would put quite the crimp in his plans.

Getting old sucked, and if the other alternative hadn't been death, he wouldn't have recommended it.

* * *

The man smiled as he carried the sleeping bundle over the wall. It had been all too easy. In the three years of peace since the invasion, Konoha had softened back up again and began to get lax in their security measures once more. Patrol routes had become predictable again, and the shinobi who stood guard on them less alert.

Despite the fact that he wasn't exactly one of the elite, he had managed to kill the ANBU guard around his target's house without raising an alarm. He had then made his way into the home of a young Kunoichi who was currently on maternity leave for an indefinite period of time, a kunoichi who was both mother and guard to his target. He killed the young woman and made his way to the apartment's second bedroom in which his target was kept.

The apartment's second bedroom had been made up into a nursery with pale blue walls and ridiculous looking stuffed animals. Oddly enough, one of the animals was a weasel in a ninja costume. A rather strange choice of decoration and childhood plaything considering what the infant's uncle had done. Perhaps, the young woman didn't care for the child nearly as much as she pretended to...

It didn't matter now, the mother was dead, and the child would never see this place again.

As he raced home, he kept his attention focused behind him, ever alert for signs of pursuit. It is perhaps because he was so focused on what might be behind that he didn't realize what might be before could be a problem until he ran into someone halfway between Konoha and home.

"I'm sorry ninja-san, but I can't allow you to go any further." the man in the orange mask, black sweatshirt with armor plates, black pants, white gaiters, black sandals, gray gloves, and long green scarf said.

The man's words sounded playful, but there seemed to be something underneath. Something that gave him the chills.

He learned exactly what that something was when he found himself trapped in a nightmarish genjutsu world for the last few seconds before he died. For him, it seemed like days, but...

* * *

The elder and soon to be retired since his part in things was almost finished Tobi did his best to comfort the infant as he wiped the Oto Jounin's blood off of him. He knew exactly who the infant was, and who he belonged to. The original Uchiha Fugaku had been quite the bastard, which was pretty much par for the course in the clan, though there were a few standouts like himself and his young cousins. The man's son didn't seem quite as arrogant as his father had been if the stories he'd heard about the boy were true though.

If the stories he'd heard about Uchiha Sasuke were true, the boy had become infected with that damnable Senju's "Will of Fire", which immediately made him an unfit parent in his book. There was no way in hell he'd let the first generation of what was to be the new Uchiha Clan be infected with the Senju's philosophies. Besides, the Uchiha owed him a child and so much more...

_...The first sign of trouble had been the silence, then the scent of smoke on the air. He knew what burning human flesh smelled like, he had smelled it in almost every battle in which he'd ever been involved before he'd retired to make his home and be with his family whom he'd faked his death for. That smell should not be lingering near the place he called home however..._

There had been a reason that he had gone along with the slightly squeamish Obito who hadn't quite been ready to destroy Konoha though he'd said otherwise and accepted Itachi's deal, and got revenge on the Uchiha in exchange for Konoha's temporary survival. He had as much reason, in fact more reason than Madara to get revenge on his clan. The Uchiha's policies regarding "bastards" had taken everything from him.

He had paid them back in blood. Blood for blood. Ten for every one taken from him. Ten for his wife, ten for each of his two sons, ten for his daughter, ten for the wife of his eldest, ten for each of his three small grandchildren.

In truth, though he'd mostly done his work quietly and in the background, he had been responsible for the slaughter of the bulk of the Uchiha clan. Those Obito hadn't killed, the boy assumed Itachi had done since he wasn't even supposed to be in the area that night, and those Itachi hadn't killed he assumed Obito had done.

Though almost completely extinct, the Uchiha still owed him a great deal, more than his three surviving kinsmen could repay. The child he'd just rescued from the Oto nin would cover a small part of that repayment.

"Come on little one, let's find us a new home, and a better name for you than Fugaku." the elder Tobi said as he swaddled the infant whose cries had finally quieted in his scarf. The scarf would have to do until he found the child a suitable blanket.

He would be gone a great deal of the time on business as there was still work to be done until it was time for Obito and Madara to bring the Jyuubi together, and his new child would likely spend most of his time with a minder, but he would find a way to come back to whatever home he chose often enough to bring his new heir up right. This time, there were no Uchiha left to bring down his sons and daughter, no Uchiha to trap his wife, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren inside their family home before burning it down and leaving a warning for the clansman dumb enough to spawn offspring outside of the clan and village. Obito would soon be going to war whether or not the plan they had dedicated decades to succeded, Itachi was dying of illness, and the boy who was now more Senju than Uchiha would stay his hand out of love for his offspring if he ever did learn the child was alive and discover his whereabouts.

This time, his child would live to grow up and start a new Uchiha clan, a better Uchiha clan under the watchful eye of the moon where his older siblings and his niece and nephews would be waiting along with every other loved one who'd passed on.

* * *

Sasuke turned pale as he heard the news.

_No. No. No. Nonononono. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening._

Who would do this? Why would they do this? Could it have been Itachi? If it was, why now? Why just one of them when he could get all of them? Was he just going to take them one at a time to watch him suffer as he was helpless to stop him as he had been back then?

Naruto had warned him earlier that Orochimaru had planned on doing something to him because he'd rejected him three years ago. Had it been Orochimaru who'd taken his son because he hadn't joined him? Was this Orochimaru's revenge?

Had it been someone else? The Sharingan was rare and valuable and with most of the clan being infants, they were at their most vulnerable.

In the end, it didn't matter who did it. His Fugaku was gone. Taken.

All he could hope was that his child was alive somewhere since there was no blood and no note telling him where he could find the body.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Here's where my rewrite decided to take me, which was not much different than my original. As for there being two Tobis, it appeared like it could be that way in the Manga seeing as a man in his teens/twenties would have a hard time passing himself off as that much older all the time and couldn't be everywhere, and since you never saw the full face when the mask was broken/removed until the big reveal...

**Edited 4-22-13**


	4. Methods of Coping

Orochimaru shifted impatiently as he waited. Considering how late it was getting, the possibility that the ninja he'd sent out to kidnap Sasuke's son had run into trouble between Konoha and here grew. News that the first part of the mission was successful had arrived long before. The shinobi he'd sent out had yet to do so as well however.

Otogakure was three days away from Konoha as a Genin or freshly minted Chunin could travel, but fo a Jounin, especially one that was as heavily modified as the one he'd sent out, that travel time could be brought down to a day or less if they were going full tilt as someone who'd managed to successfully kidnap one of the Uchiha infants should be. The only things he could think that could have gone wrong was that Danzo who was keeping a stable of his own little Uchiha pets had gotten wind of his plans and decided to add another to his batch while the location of the only Uchiha son was still in question. He would have heard if other villages had gotten wind of his plans, as the results would have been rather...messy, and likely would have ended up with the infant dead in the struggle over it.

Kidnapping Sasuke's offspring wasn't the only plan he had in his arsenal when it came to getting Sasuke's Sharingan, but it was one of the easiest, and since the time to change bodies was coming soon...

People wondered why he didn't give up on Sasuke, but the truth was, Sasuke was just about his only possible means of acquiring the Sharingan since Danzo guarded that arm and stolen eye of his jealously. Trying Itachi again would just be suicide on a stick, and the same went for Tobi, both the more public Tobi who had controlled the Mizukage and the Akatsuki and the more private Tobi who tended to vanish into the background as if he were never there quietly doing things that supposedly furthered Madara's "plans", completely oblivious to the fact that Uchiha Madara was long since dead and gone.

Seeing as there was no second option, and no alternative, it would appear that he would have to do something more direct in order to acquire Sasuke. Perhaps if he let slip that he was the reason that the boy's son had been taken...

The Uchiha would do anything for revenge after all.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke felt numb as he entered the Mission Assignment room. He knew that that would soon change however after the Shock wore off and the reality of the situation set in. He would have to be away from Konoha when that happened, far away, or there's no telling what he might do. Based on past experience, he knew that he would either turn his anger inward or outward. If he turned it inward, he might possibly do something that could destroy him. If he turned it outward, there was a possibility that with his current skill level he could go on a killing spree that could make the Uchiha Massacre seem almost tame in comparison by the time the village shinobi managed to contain him and bring him down.

He was going to need to kill something soon, and it would be best if it wasn't a citizen of Konoha. Not because he particularly liked or cared for Konoha, but because it would be nearly impossible for him and his to live here if he did. While not absolute, as was illustrated by the disappearance of his son, Konoha provided a measure of protection that he would not be able to have out on his own. Were he on his own, he would have to look over his shoulder every second of every day, and he would not have guards to relieve him so he could rest, or helpers that could deal with the more mundane tasks so he could focus on protecting his children.

"I want the highest ranked mission you can give me." he said when he reached the Mission Assignment desk which was currently being manned by that pair of gate ninja he'd occasionally seen doing odd jobs around the village.

The one on the right, Kotatsu? Kotetsu?, winced slightly. Apparently, they'd been given _orders_ regarding just such a situation.

"I'm sorry, but I can't give you anything higher than a C. Hokage's orders." the man said, confirming his suspicions.

"Do any of the current C's include killing?" he asked.

One of the numerous bandit clearing missions that cropped up every once in a while when people's greed overrode their sense of self-preservation, or people simply got desperate enough that the thought of ninjas coming to kill them no longer frightened them since they had no other option was slid across the desk towards him. Knowint that it was the best he could get under the circumstances, he took it, read the particulars, signed off on it, marking it as a solo job, and left.

All too soon, he was past the village gates and on the road. Many would think him cold and callous for leaving the village so soon after his son had been taken rather than gathering his other children all the closer and spending every moment with them that he could in case something happened to them, but it was because he didn't want something to happen to them that he was leaving. He knew that his mental and emotional state was precarious at the moment, and if he didn't get his head screwed on straight, it was entirely possible that he would do something he'd regret, do something like what that one cousin of his did to make sure that nobody would ever hurt her children. He passed by those three small graves every time he visited those of his parents.

* * *

Naruto blamed himself. If he'd given the rumor which had been the result of an actual security leak, and had actually been important more credence rather than mentally cataloging it with the others regarding Orochimaru and Sasuke which hadn't really panned out, the village would have been on higher alert, several ANBU would still be alive, and Sasuke's son would be in the village right now.

As he sat there going back over and over the manner in which he'd reported the rumor he'd gotten from his informant rather than decoding the seal that Jiraiya had given him, he wondered which words he'd used that had caused it to be marked down as "not serious". He'd been rather tired, and put out from having to deal with Satoshi who'd thought he'd been having fun despite the fact that drinking and hooking up with people hadn't been one of his favorite pastimes when he'd turned up at the Intelligence department. Had it been the grumbling manner in which he'd delivered his report which had marked it as low priority? Had it been the fact that the information was rather vague in and of itself?

"Takeru" had done his best to get what little he could. The traveler who often made forays into the smaller countries and had his finger on the pulse of such places as a matter of survival had come through for Jiraiya and Konoha in turn in the past. This time however, he had failed through no fault of his own. What little information he'd gathered, which was what little there was to be had had simply been too little too late, especially because a total ditz who should have realized that it was more significant than the usual "threats" had completely failed to deliver it in a way that would cause it to be taken seriously, mainly because he himself hadn't taken it all that seriously.

Because he'd failed and had been more focused on his minor discomforts, several good shinobi had lost their lives, and Sasuke's son had been taken to parts unknown, parts that could quite possibly be Orochimaru's lair where he would be kept for nefarious purposes.

Jiraiya had warned him something like this could happen, told him that something like this had happened to him several times before, but did he listen to him? No. Instead, he'd stood there and told the man that he was mature enough to be responsible for at least part of his spy network, which was obviously not the case as this situation clearly illustrated.

He couldn't give the responsibility back however, because the instant he'd lightened the old pervert's load, the bastard went and just about overextended himself taking on extra responsibilities that he wouldn't be able to manage if he dumped his share of the load back on his shoulders. Jiraiya may have been legendary when it came to his strength and skill, but he wasn't getting any younger, and even the strongest of men had a breaking point.

Considering what he'd already survived, he wondered what his would be.

* * *

Raccoon barely held back her tears as she signed the last of the documents regarding the autopsy of one of a half-dozen ANBU who had been casualties of Uchiha Fugaku's kidnapping. With this signature, Rabbit's file would be closed out, the body of a young man who was only a year and change older than her would be returned to its family, and a mask would be up for re-assignment. In a week or two, there would be a new Rabbit with a new paint job, and it wouldn't be the Rabbit she knew, the Rabbit who'd occasionally joked with her in the ANBU breakroom when he'd noticed that she was feeling out of her element as rookie ANBU were wont to do.

She didn't envy the Hokage the responsibility of having to fill vacancies in her forces, especially in this day and age when, except for a lucky few who'd had the drive to do extra training and had the right mentors to help them on their way, the shinobi candidates she'd seen were so...unqualified it wasn't even funny. If she didn't know any better, she'd say the Academy curriculum had been sabotaged, but since it was the same as what she'd studied back when she was in the Academy, that couldn't possibly be the case.

After signing the form that released the former Rabbit's body to his relatives, she delivered the file to Administration who'd deliver it to the Hokage whom she rarely ever saw even though she was ANBU and therefore had theoretically been picked by her to serve her needs and answer only to her. Once the file had been delivered, she headed back to ANBU headquarters where she shucked her equipment and had a much-needed shower. Once out of the shower, she signed out for the evening, hoping to find comfort in the one place that hadn't yet let her down, though there had been a time or two that she'd wanted to strangle its inhabitants.

"What's wrong Sakura?" a worried Haruno Barako asked her daughter as she came through the door.

"Just...Work stuff." Sakura replied as she seated herself at the table, despite the fact that it wasn't mealtime, and she wasn't really in the mood to eat.

* * *

**Omake**

Obito had made his speech, exhorting Naruto to join him and was holding his hand out, awaiting the boy's answer. Naruto was barely paying attention to his father's former student however, as he seemingly only had eyes for someone else, namely the other man standing on the head of the Jyuubi.

"Are you really Madara?" Naruto asked.

"Yes." The resurrected Uchiha Madara replied.

"Are you really, really, Madara and not just another Tobi like that old dude whasshisname?" Naruto asked.

Twin mutters of "I thought he died" came from the Uchiha following that question.

"Yes, I'm really, really, Madara." Madara replied, wondering if having his minions going around using his name had really been all that bright of an idea now that he thought of it...

"Great!" Naruto said cheerfully before pulling a storage scroll from his vest pocket and pulling out a battered copy of A Treatise on Traps.

"Can you sign my book?" Naruto asked.


End file.
